The Girl Who Drank the Moon

Xan sits by the fireplace. There’s something odd in the air and underground, and she’s in horrible pain. She thinks that her life is made of paper—paper birds, paper maps, paper thoughts. She remembers Zosimos writing everything he knew onto paper and thinks that the scholars recorded her life and wouldn’t have cried if she died. Xan laments that Luna is the same as she once was, but she can’t explain this to her. Nothing about this situation, from what happened to Xan to the Protectorates’ sacrifice of babies, is fair. Because Luna isn’t back yet, Xan decides to leave a note. She knows that she can’t be late to this baby and can’t be seen—transformations are more and more difficult now. She gathers her things and then turns herself into a swallow that’s as light as paper.

Antain waits to leave until Ethyne gives birth. Their son is born around lunchtime and they name him Luken. The next day, with weeks until the Day of Sacrifice, Antain steps into the woods. The madwoman watches him go, unaware of why she needs to wait for him but aware that she should. She blows Antain a kiss for luck. As she watches him go, she whispers that he can’t go alone because of the danger in the wood, and the danger that will follow him. She remembers the stories of the Witch from her childhood. In those stories, the Witch had the heart of a tiger and lived in the woods. The madwoman now knows that the Witch lives in the Tower. The madwoman turns the window bars and stones into paper and then paper birds carry her into the sky.

The Sisters discover the madwoman’s escape an hour after dawn. They keep it a secret and Sister Ignatia tries and fails to cancel a meeting with Gherland that day. She offers him tea and cookies while she fumes silently. Gherland wearily says that Antain left. Sister Ignatia reasons that Antain’s departure and the madwoman’s escape can’t be connected, even though the madwoman has been unfortunately happy recently. To make things worse, there’s less sadness in the town now that Antain has started stirring up hope. Sister Ignatia reassures Gherland and reminds him that there’s a witch in the woods.

Luna holds a note from Xan and angrily tears it up before reading all of it. The crow caws at her to not do anything stupid, but Luna informs the crow that she’s going after Xan. The crow says it’s a bad idea, but Luna insists that she has a map and needs to help Xan. Unnoticed by Luna, the note begins to reassemble itself. Luna packs a sack and just before she leaves, a small scrap of the note scuttles into her pocket. The crow agrees to come, though it suggests that she tell Glerk and Fyrian. Luna ignores it.

Glerk surveys the mess in the house as Fyrian sobs. Glerk insists that he’s worried about Luna, not Xan, but this is a lie. He sits down and reads Xan’s note to Luna. It reads that Xan is traveling quickly across the forest (which means that Xan transformed, a dangerous proposition given her health). Xan admits that she kept things from Luna and says that Luna is more than she knows. As Fyrian flutters about, Glerk examines the paper and sees that Luna’s magic put it back together. He knows that her magic is starting early. The note continues that Xan rescued Luna as a baby and fed her moonlight, which means that Luna will live a long life while the people she loves die.

Xan tells Luna the reason for this—magic—but the word is missing from the note. Xan writes that it’s the word that Luna can’t remember, but she promises to explain everything if she can. Glerk sighs and folds the letter. In comparison to his life, Xan’s is still impossibly short. Fyrian flies at Glerk with concern and Glerk decides that while Fyrian is sweet, he’s unnaturally young and it’s past time to grow up. He decides it’s time to leave the swamp. Glerk assures Fyrian that they won’t get lost and that an explanation will ease people’s fears about Fyrian’s size. Glerk and Fyrian follow Luna’s footprints into the wood. Glerk realizes that Luna’s magic is growing as they walk.